


sword and shield

by mysteric (lamperouge)



Category: April (Band), Monsta X (Band), NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Childhood Friends, Friendship-centric, Gen, Platonic Relationships, minnahyun trio, naeun and her overprotective brother and best friend, none of them like each other, the platonic minnahyun fic i needed, they're bffs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamperouge/pseuds/mysteric
Summary: minhyuk watches naeun’s retreating figure, and turns to jaehyun while keeping his gaze on her. “i don’t think anyone’s ever going to be good enough for our naeun,” he says. jaehyun nods in agreement.or: minhyuk and jaehyun are convinced that naeun has started dating and they’re not too happy about it.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	sword and shield

**Author's Note:**

> i love the minnahyun interactions in inkigayo and to me they give off the childhood bestfriends vibe who are all so equally protective of one another. just like the ssangmundong squad in reply 1988 (which is the largest inspiration for this fic). also obviously there's a bit of agebending to fit them in the childhood best friends narrative, but i feel like it worked well anyway. 
> 
> out of all the fics i've written, this is the one that came to me the easiest. i finished this in a span of three hours and i'm quite happy with the well it turned out. obviously platonic and familial relationships are just as important as romantic ones, if not more. so here's my take on the overprotective brother and the overprotective best friend trope.

**it’s minhyuk who notices things first.** after all, he’s been living in the same house as his little sister ever since he could remember. even as he gets accepted to yonsei university, it’s his own refusal to leave his parents and naeun at home that secures the close-enough proximity between him and his sister enough for him to notice the little things. 

naeun starts to come home with a smile on her face, all wide and gummy as she looks at her phone upon entering the room of their humble house in seoul. like all protective older brothers, minhyuk interrogates her. 

“why are you smiling?” his voice is firm, asserting authority because he’s her older brother and he should at least know if she’s dating anyone. 

“oh it’s nothing. i was looking at memes.” she answers, the smile still present on her face. 

“i don’t believe you.” there’s a hard look on his face that prompts his little sister to roll her eyes. had she rolled her eyes harder, there would’ve been an earthquake in the house. 

“fine, then. don’t believe me. i’d have shown you the meme if you weren’t such an ass about it.” she scoffs and disappears off into her own room, leaving minhyuk yelling obscenities in her wake. 

when jaehyun comes over and asks minhyuk for his college entrance exam study guides and reviewers, he forces jaehyun to stay and to observe naeun while she’s sitting in the dining room, phone in hand and a big smile on her face.

“do you think she’s dating?” minhyuk asks jaehyun, his voice hinting at panic. 

“hard to tell. i would have seen it at school if she was.” jaehyun replies, but even then, he sounds like he’s convincing himself more than minhyuk. 

“she can’t date, jaehyun! she’s only a junior! what if she fails her college entrance exams because of _love life_ of all things?” 

\

**ever since minhyuk told jaehyun about the possibility of naeun dating,** he finds himself developing a more watchful eye towards her. surely if she’s seeing someone in _their_ school, he’d be the first to know, right? everyone in the school is aware that jaehyun, naeun, and minhyuk are inseparable since they were kids. even with the one year age gap in between all three of them, it’s impossible to find one without the other. 

he wipes his palms on the fabric of his school uniform as he anxiously waits for naeun to get out of her class in time for lunch. she promised him that they’d sneak out to get something good from the convenience store across the street. a form of consolation towards jaehyun who scored lower than he expected from his mock test. 

when naeun finally emerges from the door of her classroom, she’s holding a key ring in her hands. the key ring boasts a small teddy bear and a small transparent heart with the words _i love you_ inside the heart. questions are running in jaehyun’s head, but he keeps himself calm. he’d ask her subtly. a different tactic than what minhyuk would have used. 

“what’s with the key ring?” he finally asks her while they’re eating popsicles underneath the school bleachers. it’s a secure enough place to eat their contraband food without getting caught. he, naeun, and minhyuk - before he graduated - are the only ones crazy enough to eat underneath the bleachers without feeling grossed out by the amount of dried gum stuck beneath the seats. 

“oh, my friend gave it to me. isn’t it pretty?” she proceeds to let the key ring dangle just in front of his eyes and it takes jaehyun five seconds before he could think of a proper response that doesn’t involve sounding like her older brother. 

“which friend?” scratch that. he sounds _exactly_ like minhyuk. he hopes that his response doesn’t piss her off that she wouldn’t give him any answer. 

“why are you asking me that all of a sudden?” her eyes are wide and her popsicle is melting on her fingers.

jaehyun sighs and wipes off the melted popsicle with his handkerchief. “eat that before it all melts.” 

naeun smiles happily and thanks him before going back to eating her matcha popsicle. 

he figures that he’d just have to ask her another time. 

\

**naeun is throwing popcorn at minhyuk every second and it’s starting to annoy the hell out of him.** don’t get him wrong, his sister _is_ his best friend and no one else gets to take that label, except perhaps jaehyun, but sometimes she’s so obnoxious that minhyuk feels like he could tear his hair out. 

“jesus christ, naeun, what are you so annoying for?!” he yells when he’s finally had enough. 

as expected, his little sister laughs and throws more popcorn to his face. minhyuk feels like he’s on the losing end of the stick here. he just _wants_ to watch this new superhero film they rented out but he couldn’t really focus could he? not when she’s throwing all that popcorn to his face. 

“if you’re going to throw all that popcorn on my face then why’d you even make it in the first place?” his tone turns cold, greatly annoyed. 

naeun’s shoulders sink, and minhyuk starts to feel as though he shouldn’t have gotten annoyed with her that fast. but it’s not like he could help it, could he? 

“i’m sorry. it’s just that sometimes i feel like you’re _too_ busy to hang out with me anymore. how long do you think before i start to grow tired of jaehyun? it feels like i see him more than i see you and you’re here _every day!_ you don’t even pay attention to me anymore.” she’s frowning this time. maybe he shouldn’t have used that tone on her. 

“hey, i _pay attention._ you think i don’t notice you smiling on your phone every single time?” guilty as he may be, he’s not going to be a doting and affectionate older brother now. “seriously, you smiling on your phone every single day gets so annoying. who are you dating?” 

the frown on her face turns into a scowl and naeun drops the entire bowl of popcorn over his head. 

“when your one and only little sister tells you she feels like you’re not hanging out with her anymore, _you say sorry!_ not to ask her if she’s dating! seriously, you’re so frustrating!” 

her bedroom door slams shut and minhyuk yells at her to clean up the popcorn, only for him to end up doing it anyway. and when he enters the shower, he finds that there is a _lot_ of salt in that bowl of popcorn. 

minhyuk yells at naeun again, telling her that if he catches her dating someone, she’ll be dead meat. 

“naeun are you dating?” their father’s voice rings throughout the entire house. 

“dad! seriously?” 

minhyuk smiles triumphantly while scrubbing away the salt on his head. 

\

**jaehyun opens the door to the lee household just in time to watch naeun and minhyuk start yelling at each other.** he’s no stranger to walking in on the siblings’ endless fights, as usual, he takes his seat in the center of the couch. when naeun and minhyuk fight, jaehyun had always been the mediator. he’d have to admit that ever since minhyuk graduated high school and spent more time in yonsei than with him and naeun, it feels a bit lonely. hence the reason why he watches the siblings fight with a smile on his face.

“jaehyun! tell him he’s delusional!” naeun’s exasperated yelling echoes in the living room. 

it’s always been this way. naeun giving in first and turning to the next person, hoping that whoever it is would agree with her. 

“you see her often in school, jaehyun. tell me if she’s dating or not!” minhyuk’s yelling too, and if jaehyun isn’t so used to this, he would have yelled back at the two of them. 

that’s the thing though, about having best friends who have been there since the start of time, he knows them well enough that these situations aren’t a hard feat for him anymore. it feels comfortable. 

“well i can’t really say yes, because i’ve never seen her go out with anyone. and i can’t really say no because again, i’ve never seen her go out with anyone. who knows what she’s up to when she’s not under my watchful eyes.” jaehyun shrugs. it’s the most objective he could get. 

frankly, he doesn’t mind being the mediator between the siblings. he figures that it’s what makes their dynamic complete, the entire point of their conjoined puzzle pieces. he balances them out in ways that he couldn’t even explain because it’s just the way things are. and when someone asks him if he ever feels left out simply because naeun and minhyuk are siblings, he only ever laughs in their face. 

“seriously, the things you worry about are too shallow. don’t you have some finals to prepare for, you hag?” at the mention of the word hag, pillows started to fly around the entire room. 

sometime during the afternoon, naeun retreats into her bedroom, holding her phone in her hands and smiling widely. 

once the bedroom door shuts, the turnout of events are expected. 

“did you see the look on her face, jaehyun?” minhyuk asks, looking more panicked than the first time he told jaehyun about the possibility of naeun dating. 

jaehyun sighs, because even to him, it does seem like someone finally captured the heart of their naeun. “i did, yeah. do you think it’s someone we know?” 

“if it’s someone we know then she better break up with them.” 

\

**this time, minhyuk catches her touching her lips with a faraway look on her face.** she’s smiling too, which really _really_ worries him. if naeun really is dating, then he doesn’t understand the need for her to beat around the bush with it. 

he leaves her alone, though, because he figures that naeun would tell him in her own time. as much as he wants to get an answer out of her, he tries to save it for later. for when he couldn’t handle it anymore. 

of course his observation is to be shared with jaehyun.

minhyuk knows that jaehyun is protective enough of naeun without his constant reminders to watch her. for that, minhyuk really is thankful that they met jaehyun. he takes care of naeun where minhyuk couldn’t. he doesn’t have to be told to know that naeun asks jaehyun for advice most of the time instead of him. 

sometimes minhyuk thinks jaehyun raised naeun just as much as he did. 

\

**naeun’s supposed to walk home with him after school.** except naeun cancelled on him this time and told him that she’s going somewhere after classes with a friend. 

based from jaehyun’s stock knowledge about naeun’s life (he’s not a stalker, please don’t get him wrong. he just really wants to know if she has nice friends who would take care of her and buy her matcha flavored popsicles and goldfish bread when she’s sad), her closest friends are yerim and doyeon. one of them is her classmate and the other one from a neighboring class. he thinks they hang out with this boy named chanhee too. 

it clicks into his head suddenly, and jaehyun finds himself in search of yoo taeyang from the other class. to his knowledge, regardless of its authenticity, taeyang is one of chanhee’s close friends. if he wants to know if it’s chanhee that naeun is going to spend time with, he’s willing to lose his dignity talking to someone he barely knows just to get to the bottom of this. 

“yoo taeyang!” he calls after taeyang before the other boy could exit the doors of the high school. “i need to talk to you!” 

taeyang looks confused, but regardless, he walks over to where jaehyun is and asks him what’s up. 

“you’re close friends with chanhee, right? do you know if he’s dating naeun by any chance?” straight to the point. jaehyun doesn’t want to waste anymore time, who knows where naeun could be? he has to look for her after this too. 

“huh? i don’t think chanhee is seeing anyone. he’d tell me if he is.” his confused expression is fixed on jaehyun still, and he buffers for a few more seconds before adding: “protective over naeun, huh? well, she’s not dating chanhee. so i think you can breathe now.” 

taeyang walks away chuckling, but jaehyun doesn’t feel relieved. if anything, panic rises even more because if it’s not chanhee, then who the hell is it? 

\

**minhyuk is supposed to be sitting in a lecture right now, not racing to the convenience store near his old high school just to meet up with jaehyun.** the only reason why he ever so willingly agreed to meet jaehyun is because it’s his little sister they’re talking about. apparently, naeun called off their usual routine of walking home together and told him she’s meeting a friend.

normally, they wouldn’t worry about such a situation. naeun’s allowed to have friends outside of them of course! but usually, naeun would tell them who she’s with. this time, she disappears without telling jaehyun who she’s with. only that it’s a friend. 

suspicions arose and minhyuk, the ever loving older brother that he is, is already panting in front of the convenience store with a panicked jaehyun in front of him. 

“we _have_ to look for her now.” jaehyun reminds him and together they comb through the streets of seoul in search of lee naeun. 

they look in the nearest department store, the tteokbokki restaurant that they frequent, the food carts naeun would usually approach, the bookstore where naeun would spend hours and hours looking for new romance novels to read, and the ice cream store she would always go to when she’s craving for “high quality ice cream”. 

she’s nowhere to be found in any of them and the two boys resort to walking home together instead. 

the two boys walk in silence, and there’s the loud feeling of naeun’s absence between the two of them. while naeun’s not really the loudest out of all three (the loudest is minhyuk), she’s the one who’s always filled with a bright and cheery disposition that manages to rub off on everyone she’s with. 

once they finally turn the corner that leads to the street they live in, they see naeun watching a boy’s retreating figure from in front of the house. both minhyuk and jaehyun share a panicked look that lasts just long enough for the boy to disappear into the corner of the street. 

“hey! lee naeun! what do you think you’re doing?” much to the shock of both minhyuk and naeun, it’s jaehyun who yells. jaehyun who’d always been patient and gentle with naeun. 

minhyuk could only stare in disbelief when jaehyun approaches naeun with a stern look on his face. 

he remembers the one time when the three of them were in middle school. it’s minhyuk’s last year, jaehyun’s second, and naeun’s first. most would think that naeun’s sweet and cheerful disposition would only earn her more friends and admirers once she started going to their middle school. what minhyuk did not expect though would be for naeun to attract a set of bullies. 

what bothers him more about that time is that he wasn’t the first to find out, it was jaehyun instead of him who found out that girls from naeun’s class had been taking her lunch money and her own packed lunch. 

minhyuk had never seen jaehyun so enraged before that he stormed into the classroom filled with girls who all admired him - including the girls who all bullied naeun. minhyuk stared from the classroom door while jaehyun yelled at the girls for bullying naeun. while he watched, he couldn’t help but to think that it should be him doing this exact same thing. because it’s _him_ who’s naeun’s brother. but when he remembered the time when naeun had been crying after a boy from the other street ran over her foot with a bicycle, he could only focus on his crying sister and couldn’t bring himself to even go after the stupid bastard. 

even then, it had been jaehyun who went after the boy who ran over naeun’s foot and brought the boy over to force an apology. 

it sinks into him now that he’d always been the shield and jaehyun had been the sword, both of them swearing to protect naeun with all their might. 

“i’m just going home. why are you yelling at me?” minhyuk could only watch his sister as she looks at jaehyun looking hurt and defeated. 

“who’s that boy you’re with?” jaehyun asks, his tone softening but still rough enough around the edges.

“why are you two so up in my business!” it’s the loudest minhyuk had ever heard his sister yell. “that’s my friend! do i have to spell it out for you? f-r-i-e-n-d! friend! how long are you two going to hound me for this topic? do you two really not trust me enough to know that i’d tell you two right away if i have a boyfriend?” 

she looks hurt, and minhyuk stares at the ground. he doesn’t even plan on answering her anymore. the realization hits him like a ton of bricks falling on his shoulders. 

he should have trusted her more. 

“i’m sorry,” it’s jaehyun who speaks first. “we’re just worried about you and it just seemed like you’re seeing someone and we wanted to make sure whoever it is is a good person.” 

“we just wanted what’s best for you, naeun.” minhyuk adds. 

naeun sighs and purses her lips, her gaze alternating between minhyuk and jaehyun. 

“i don’t think it’s that at all. you two are just afraid that i’m growing up right in front of you and that you can’t do anything about it.” naeun states with an air of sternness in her tone that it seems so unfamiliar to minhyuk. 

“what? no it’s not that at a-” 

“save it, jaehyun. do you two seriously think that i’m stupid enough not to know what’s going on in your heads?” 

“look we just…” minhyuk trails off, an exasperated sigh leaving his lips. “it’s always been the three of us. you, me, and jaehyun. we’ve always been here to protect you two from anyone who dares to harm even a single hair strand on your head. we just want you to associate yourself with good people.” 

“i know that.” naeun smiles at them, “and i know that you two have the best intentions. but seriously, you two need to let me live sometimes. even if i wanted to date how the hell am i going to let anyone date me if you two are going to constantly breathe down my neck? i saw your face a while ago, jaehyun, you looked like you’re about to chase my friend who just left.” 

minhyuk laughs at jaehyun who’s currently scratching the back of his head. he’s right, he is the shield and jaehyun is the sword. 

“listen to me both of you,” naeun sounded so authoritative in that moment that both minhyuk and jaehyun stood straighter in front of her as she spoke. “if i _ever_ date someone, i promise that you two would be the very first people to know. so please, don’t worry about me. it’s always been the three of us, and it will always be the three of us. there’s no reason for me to hide anything from my best friends, right?” 

he nods along with jaehyun. although raising naeun is mostly their parents’ effort, minhyuk couldn’t help but to feel proud of the way his sister turned out. and that maybe, a bit of the reason why she’s this wise is also because of him. 

“so please, don’t worry about me. i know watching me all grown up is scary for the two of you because you’re thinking about whether you’d have to beat someone up for breaking my heart or something, but you have to trust me. seriously, i’ve never let the two of you down, have i?” naeun smiles before pulling jaehyun into an embrace, one that he awkwardly returns. naeun hugs minhyuk too, right after she pulls away from jaehyun. 

“alright i’m going home now.” 

minhyuk watches naeun’s retreating figure, and turns to jaehyun while keeping his gaze on her. “i don’t think anyone’s ever going to be good enough for our naeun,” he says. 

jaehyun nods in agreement. “well we’re here to make sure they don’t hurt her, at least.” 

it’s always been the three of them since they were kids, and minhyuk is entirely certain that it will be the three of them too no matter what happens. 


End file.
